From a quick googling I think your Wahl-o-Mat question relates to the use of befristeter Arbeitsvertrag. When I looked at some of the longer examples of usage at www.linguee.de, it seems that fixed-term employment contract is the best translation. The problem in translation is I think specific to the laws of the two countries. Let me give four examples of fixed-term employment contracts in the US. Thank you very much! I was very confused when I discovered that unions are involved in labor contracts.
Your second example is closest to what the question intended. In the original it is not limited to college student but also to those who have graduated. (But No. 4 also fits quite well.)
While the hire-and-fire policy is pretty common and perceived as standard in the US, it is bitterly despised in Europe (outside the UK). Since Schröder's Hartz reforms, however, companies can fire you after your first six months without given any reasons, plus they can offer you time-limited internships as often as they want. They've been exercising their right very rigidly, for which those companies are very often sharply criticized. They can also hire people from private agencies as often as they want since the reforms, which leads to my next question...
Do you call such work placed by private agencies
subcontracted labor? And are those private agencies called
temporary employment agency? And what are the
slaves workers called that can be hired by companies? Agency workers, contract workers, temporary workers? Which translation is the best fit?